Luscious Gracious! Look What We Made Today!

A blog devoted to the art of the Luscious Gracious clan.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Contest Results!

Thanks to everyone who entered the LGStitched episode 1 music contest! Several entered and once we gave some hints, a few even got them all right. These songs are by some of our favorite musicians. We encourage you to check them out. We've already converted at least one Belle & Sebastian fan through the essay. Here are the correct answers:

Baby Let Me Share My Love: Terence Trent D'arby - Yes, TTD. He made some incredible albums before losing it and changing his name (just like another of my old favorites). I prefer TTD's Vibrator, gotta love that "Supermodel Sandwich w/Cheese"

We had 3 people get all of the answers correct, Jeff, Pam, and Mel. So it came down to the bonus question. Pam decided to answer all of the questions in the Sense of Sound essay just to be safe. Her hilarious answer to the question "Why does the wedding march call up tears?", involving PMS, name-changes, and the possibility of her dog eating her was almost enough to award her the prize. However, she & Mel both answered the bonus question correctly.

This World Is Not My Home: His Name Is Alive - HNIA has recorded many versions of this song. Check out the latest on their MySpace (apparently there is more on MySpace than Max and photo thieves).

This was another tough one, as many artists have recorded this song. Since we had two correct answers, we held the official contest coin flip Friday night, and Mel won, although they discussed joint-custody. Congratulations Mel!

We had only 2 entrants for the booby-prize!Curran made us laugh with his hilariously detailed answers like these;

Always Turn Me On: = by the Beltone Hearing Aid Company, from the album "Hints and Tips for the Elderly and their new Hearing Devices"

Go To The Bank: = from the The Association foirreverentnt Moments of History's 1986 recording consisting of musical interpretations of the cryptic lists written in 1934 by Bonnie to Clyde, this particular entry was listed as #2, just under "Buy new bullets".

2006 Foxbot Queen/King Illanna entertained us with short, but funny answers like theseAlways Turn Me On: = "The Computers and TV's"I'm Still Here: = "The Rolling Stones"Baby Let Me Share My Love: = "The Big Guy who Hangs out Under Cars in Your Parking Lot" (this one is particularly funny because it's true, and more than a little scary. Ladies and gents, there is a reason that Stephen walks you to your cars)

We liked both responses so much, we think you both deserve to win. Curran, we will send you something fabulous (please e-mail me an address stephen@lusciousgracious.com), sorry Illanna, you're stuck with the booby.

from my trip to the Petrified Forest and other cool (and hot) spots with Cute-David (pictured below in his sweater that Kiki made, now with extended sleeves for the ape in everyone). Notice that he refused to pose outside in Stephen's favorite "natural light". The one-minute walk to Wendy's almost killed us. And that guy wasn't even out there under the cars!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Firefox(bot) Friendly

Everyone knows here at LGS we like things old school, but apparently there is this new thing called Mozilla Firefox that is all the rage in internet browsers. I'm sure it is great, and I'll keep my personal opinions to myself (I'm sure I've already alienated dozens of Goo Goo Dolls fans with the last post), but Firefox didn't seem to like LGStitched. Thanks to Stephanie for the heads up.

Firefox liked the pictures for some patterns to go with the titles of others, it loved to underline everything, and it liked to use a crappy picture of the LGStitched banner. I think I have fixed all those things to be Firefox friendly now. So all of you Firefox users go take another look at LGStitched. See it as it was intended, well almost. I didn't fix everything, you still have to pretend that u with the 2 dots over it is a check mark, and that the play fair notice at the bottom of the patterns fits in the little blue box. Maybe later.

And for you old schoolers still using IE, I've updated the I'm still here page to link to all of the old free stuff from LGS. I'm sure that's what's been holding you back from purchasing the binder/episode 1 combo pack.

Don't forget there is still time to enter the contest. We have a few that have all the right answers, but no one has the bonus question right yet.

Steve

By the way, for all of you who were wondering, LGStitched is best viewed using Internet Explorer and a screen setting of 800X600 pixels (told you we were old school - you might even want to use your 286 PC).

Oops almost forgot, no post is complete without a photo, so in keeping with that old school vibe, here is one from the late 90's (I think).

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Gifts Received & To Give + Contest Update

**Update #2 - The contest page appears to be working again. Thanks Yahoo! for making a second change to this function of webhosting without telling me! Anyway, if you already e-mailed, no need to send again (unless you are unsure of your answers). If you didn't e-mail, go enter now. Just because one person now has them all right doesn't guarantee a win. There is still the bonus question, and if multiple people get them all right this week, we will randomly pick a winner.**

Let me start this post with an apology for the quality of the pictures. I am a big fan of natural light in photography. Unfortunately, when it is 115 degrees those outside photo shoots are limited to about 2 minutes and 17 seconds. Sometimes we don't even make it outside. So forgive me if the quality is lacking. It's just too damn hot.

A belated thank you to our One Skein secret pals for our June skeins! Kiki & Lucy's secret pal sent Lucy this Debbie Bliss "Pure Silk", because it seemed to fit Kiki's description of Lucy. Wow, how luxurious. Lucy, any ideas of how to use it yet?

Lily & I received this great skein of Berroco "Hip-Hop"! Lily - what do you think, maybe a jellyfish?

She also sent us these delicious Huckleberry Jellybeans! Even the monkey liked them. Thanks!

Speaking of Berroco "Hip-Hop", here is an unfinished bag I have been working on since last fall. It is made using Hip-Hop and Noro "Daria", and I hope to finish it soon thanks to the Stress-Busters Association at Tempe Yarn & Fiber. This group encourages everyone to begin their holiday knitting now, and to actually finish items before the holiday. Jen & Terry even let us list our unfinished objects to help us get them done. After all, even a gift to yourself is a gift!

I also listed this bag that uses wire as the straps. Yes, I go to the hardware store on occasion, it might be to buy purse accessories, but that doesn't take away the manliness of it, does it? I've also been known to visit the hardware store when building robots.

This bag has one of my crocheted swirl ends. I just need to finish attaching the straps, add a zipper and lining (maybe).

Here is another nearly-finished bag. This time I used the swirl on the lid, and it felted into this fancy sombrero-looking thing. This one just needs a handle, closure, and lining.

It seems Kiki might be making a lot of pink and brown gifts. She recently spun this 70% merino 30% silk that Illanna brought back from Angora Cottage Yarns at Stitches. The pink is merino from Tempe Yarn and Fiber. She wants to use it to trim the tweedy stuff.

In addition to all the Spritely Goods we showed on the last post, Kiki recently purchased this lovely pink and brown batt,

and this pink and brown roving. If you haven't checked out Stephanie's new Spritely Goods shop, go there right now! She has more than just pinks and browns. Go ahead, we'll wait, come back & read about the contest after you've shopped.

Hopefully this new club at TYF will help us get our gifts finished quickly. It is amazing what the power of peer pressure and a little competition can push you to accomplish.

Speaking of competition, how about that contest update?

Some of you may know that we have contest to go along with the music episode of LGStitched. The prize is pictured above. Yes, it is a felted record of LGStitched episode 1. The b-side is "Shockadelica", of course, because there will never be a better b-side. So all you have to do to win is name the artists that sing the songs we've used as menu titles. Pretty simple, right? Well, so far no one has them all correct. There is one song that is a common title and has been sung by several artists. You have to guess the one that WE like, because that's what really matters. If you can't get that one right, you could always answer the bonus question in the Sense of Sound essay. Just send your answer to stephen@lusciousgracious.com.

Or if you are totally stumped, you could always go after the booby prize. It may be something like this poor first attempt at a felted circle. To win the booby prize, just make up funny answers. Make us laugh and you might win.

So we will give you another week to enter the contest, and here are a few hints to help you out.

1. We are not fans of the Goo Goo Dolls

2. Apparently Johnny Rzeznik is a guitar player and singer for the Goo Goo Dolls. See hint #1. (to learn more about Johnny Rzeznik, take this quiz to see which of his guitars you are. I couldn't get the picture of the one I am to show, but based on the name, that was probably a good thing.)

3. Depending on the words entered in your Google search, the correct answer might be as many as 10 pages back.

If you've already entered, give it another try. If you haven't entered, now's your chance. And if you are just plain bored, make us laugh and you can still win. Try to beat Illanna!

Steve

p.s. No offense intended toward Goo Goo Dolls fans. Don't hate us because we have better taste than you do.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Socks, Socks, Socks + another free pattern

As you can probably tell from my essay in our little LGStitched project, I love hand knit socks. I love to knit them, I love to wear them, I love to give them as gifts, and I love to dream about them.

Some of my fellow sock knitters have a closet full of sock yarn. I have enough to keep me busy for a long time, but not quite a closet full! I do, however, have at least 20 sets of dpn's, and right now I have 14 socks on the needles, all at different stages of development. That's a lot of ribbing coming my way (they are all of the toe-up variety). And, I usually finish spinning another ball of sock yarn every few days on my new wheel (you can see just some of June's spinning in the basket above), so maybe I will need that closet soon. Hopefully the closet will be for the socks, not for the yarn. It really is a great thing that sock knitting is the most portable of all knitting. And small projects aren't so hot and sticky out here either. Let me tell you, I have been working on a big woolen sweater lately, and it is an air-conditioning-only project.

One pair that I recently finished is made of Yarntini's sock yarn in the "Pure Knits" colorway, a gift from Illanna. This is one of four pair(s?) of pink and brown socks that I am working on right now. The ball of pink and brown from Stephanie on the top of the photo below may also become socks, which would make five, or is that six?

All of the goodies above are from Stephanie at Spritely Goods. Her yarns and batts are yummmmmmmmmy. Here's a little close-up. Remember, the pink is for Stephen (usurper of Illanna).

And even more sock yarn. This time it is Kool-Aid dyed SWTC Optimum Dk. I dyed and overdyed....four times...to get the browns and purples and greens that I wanted. The Optimum yarns are harder to dye with foodstuffs, but do retain dye quite well once they decide to accept them.

And, I am so lucky. Right now Stephen Dear is making me a special sock-knitting bag of his own wondrous design. Beautiful and functional! And felted, of course!

Here is that yarn again, this time in a nice cake. The dark purplish brown should stripe with the green sections, can't wait to get it on the needles. Should I finish one pair before starting this? Are 16 socks on the needles overkill?

So, socks. Ahh, socks. Did I really ever change the subject?

The love I used to feel for shoes has easily been replaced by my love for beautiful knitted socks (have I said the word "love" enough?). We mostly wear flip flops out here, so socks sometimes have to take on a different function. Therefore, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you my own version of the flip flop sock, knit in Cascade "Fixation", of course, and free to you in the following pattern. Try it out, as it is easy, economical, fun, and practical. You don't often get that in one project. I may be stretching the "practical" part, as I am not sure that these socks do much except look cute and draw attention to your feet, which is not a bad thing, but maybe not essential. And the cotton yarn is a good choice for those of us desert knitters struggling to find something for our needles that doesn't feel like a sweaty mess after two minutes of knitting.

So, read through the pattern and get to work, even if you have never made socks before. Also, if you live in the Phoenix area, you should hop down to Tempe Yarn and Fiber. There you will receive a free copy of the pattern, nicely printed and in its own sleeve, when you buy your ball of "Fixation". They stock tons of colors, and lots of other awesome yarns, notions, needles, and fibers for knitting and spinning. This store is a true gem, and the owners, Jen and Terry, are so committed to the love of fiber arts, that it is infectious. They will put needles in your hands, set you up in front of a wheel, and get you going on any number of things in the blink of an eye, and all for the love of yarn.

Knit on,kikiluscious

Coming soon - one skein surprises, Steve felts some more bags (big surprise), and all the details about the contest that has yet to have a winner.